Obamacare Goes to Court As Uninsured Rate Drops to New Low

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A new Gallup poll released today gives the Administration and Obamacare advocates more fuel in their fight to save Obamacare from a potentially devastating Supreme Court ruling

The poll published just after the Court finished hearing oral arguments in the high stakes case of King v. Burwell, found that the uninsured rate for the first quarter of the year has dwindled down to 12.3 percent among adults.

That’s the lowest rate on record in recent history—and the president’s health care law deserves much of the credit, pollsters say. That’s because Obamacare provisions—including the insurance marketplaces and Medicaid expansion have expanded access to health coverage for millions of Americans.

The poll comes just as the law faces its second potentially fatal Supreme Court challenge, which threatens to yank federal subsidized health coverage from more than 8 million Americans. Read about the case here.

If the Court rules against the administration, the now-record low uninsured rate will tick back up.

As the Urban Institute previously reported, such a ruling would have a devastating impact on not only the millions of people who stand to lose coverage, but also health providers who would again see more people without health coverage—significantly raising the cost of uncompensated care. It would also upset the insurance market, which would lose millions of consumers, morphing the risk pools and ultimately driving the price of premiums up.

For their part, the plaintiffs in the Court challenge contend that Obamacare harms them financially, and they are not alone in opposing the law. According to the latest polls, a slim majority still opposes the president’s health care law. Still, an adverse ruling would indisputably be terrible news for millions of people receiving subsidized coverage under the law.

The Court is scheduled to make its decision in June, and judging by today’s oral arguments, the ruling is still very much up in the air.